SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The UC Santa
Barbara men's volleyball team will open up regular season play this
weekend when they host the 50th annual UCSB Asics Invitational on
Friday, Jan. 3 and Saturday, Jan. 4.

This year's tourney, which features 10 teams split into two
five-team pools, will have a revised scheduling format.

On Friday, each team will play round-robin against the other
four teams in their pool. These matches will be best of three sets
exhibitions and will not count towards overall records. After the
conclusion of all matches on Friday, records will be compiled and
seeds will be assigned within each pool.

On Saturday, each team will play its corresponding seed in the
opposite pool (i.e. the top seed in Pool A will play the top team
in Pool B). These matches will count towards teams' overall
records.

The four teams joining the Gauchos in Pool A include Stanford,
Cal Baptist, Pacific, and Harvard. Pool B will be comprised of Long
Beach State, UCLA, Cal State Northridge, UC San Diego, and
IPFW.

The first wave of matches on Friday will take place at 10 a.m.,
with the second wave commencing at 3 p.m. after a lunch break.
Saturday's matches will occur every two-and-a-half hours starting
at 10 a.m., with the championship match slated for 8 p.m.

The Gauchos were ranked No. 8 in the nation in the AVCA
Preseason Poll, while being picked by conference coaches to finish
seventh in the ultra-competitive MPSF.

All of the matches on Friday will take place at the Thunderdome,
with Saturday's matches being played at Rob Gym. Fan resources,
including campus/parking maps and driving directions, can be found
here.

All-tournament passes are priced at $30 for adults, and $20 for
seniors, youth, and military. One-day passes are $18 for adults and
$15 for seniors, youth, and military. Tickets can be purchased on
site at each venue.